WouldBe Princesses
by QueenKathrine
Summary: This is my version of Rumplestiltskin, with a twist. This time there are two girls, one in Eighteenth Century France and the other in Modern Texas. They both meet a boy and fall in love, but that is where things get interesting... R&R please.
1. Happy Accidents

**A/N: This is my first serious FanFic. It is baisically a re-telling of Rumplestiltskin from two points of view. The first is a girl from France in the early 1700's. I do not claim that this is historically accurate as far as places or people go, but if someone knows something about houses, clothing or culture in general I would appreciate it. The second POV is a modern college student who goes to a small school in Texas. The rest you will just have to figure out as we go along. Reviews, especially constructive criticism, are appreciated. I hope you enjoy the story.**

Chapter 1: Happy Accidents

_France, early 1700's…_

Gabrielle sat at her spinning wheel. She sat and spun. She spun the most beautiful thread that anyone had ever seen. Now, this was not the result of any spell or enchantment. No, this was the result of pure raw talent and hard work. It made her so angry when people cheapened her work by saying that she had magic or that she had a fairy godmother that did her work for her. When her mother was alive she told Gabrielle to just ignore them that they were jealous of what she could do, of what she had. Gabrielle always remembered this whenever she became angry over what people said about her. She always remembered.

She got up and moved around. It hurt her butt to sit for too long on the hard stool attached to her wheel and so she decided to go take a walk. She lived with her father on a small piece of land not too far outside a village, but far enough that she could walk in the pasture next door without running into anyone else. In fact, now that her mother died she and her father were the only ones that lived within a mile of their piece. It was lonely sometimes and she wished that there was someone around, someone that she felt some since of connection too. Since her mother's death her father had withdrawn into himself more and more, throwing himself into his work at the mill and then spending the rest of his time in his workshop behind the house, but she had no idea what he did out there. At least he worked hard enough that they were not poor. She had heard of men that drank or gambled themselves to ruin after their wives died.

The fact that their land was so isolated was probably the reason that it surprised her so much when the horse and its rider came up behind her. She was so startled she nearly jumped out of her skin. The rider was a man about 20 years old with curly brown hair and these deep blue eyes that seemed to change when you looked at him. He wore clothing that looked well made and was made out of nice fabric, but at the same time he wasn't dressed ostentatiously. "Hello" the man said. "I'm sorry if I startled you. I was just wondering if you could tell me where Fontan is."

"It's about 2 miles farther down the road." She replied. "Who are you looking for there?"

"I'm going to stay with a family friend, a Monsieur D'Auvignon" he replied.

"Oh, well if you're looking for Monsieur D'Auvignon then you just need to go a little further. He live outside town, about a half-mile from here, in fact he is just past my house. I can take you there if you like." Gabrielle offered, not knowing quite why she had been so bold.

"That would be lovely" he replied. He offered a hand so to help her onto his horse, she got on and they set off in the general direction of Gabrielle's and M. D'Auvignon's houses. They passed the time chatting. Gabrielle found it refreshing to talk to someone her own age, for there weren't many people her age around, and the ones in the village thought her strange, she knew that some even thought her a witch, because of her spinning skills, though they would never dare voice such a dangerous accusation aloud. So they rode, it wasn't that far to her place. She pointed it out to him, though she wasn't sure if he would remember. They reached M. D'Auvignon's house far too quickly, she felt that she could have stayed with him for hours and hours. Madam D'Auvignon came out and greeted the man with a motherly hug and kiss on the forehead, even though he was a good foot taller than she. He was roughly 6 feet, whereas she couldn't be much taller than 5 feet.

"It is so good to see you again Philippe" Madam D'Auvignon said. So his name is Philippe, Gabrielle mused, it seemed to fit him. "Oh and thank you dear for bringing him, the roads are so disorganized out here." Madam D'Auvignon said to Gabrielle.

"It was no problem" replied Gabrielle, "I was happy to do it. I suppose that I will see you soon, perhaps at mass on Sunday."

"Of course dear" Madam D'Auvignon replied, "see you then." She then bustled Philippe into the house, calling for a servant boy to come take care of the horse. Gabrielle looked over her shoulder as she walked away. If she had looked just a moment later she would have seen Philippe looking over his shoulder at her.

_300 years later…_

The alarm rang at 7:30 the first morning of the semester, jarring Alex awake. She hit the snooze button and cursed herself, as she knew she would every morning for the rest of the semester, for deciding that it would be a good idea to take an 8:30 class, much less Calculus, which one actually has to be awake for. She had thought about dropping the class multiple times over Christmas break, but she knew that if she did she would regret it, besides that her father was an engineer that insisted that she learn useful skills while at college, especially if she persisted in double majoring in History and Literature. Hence, the 8:30 Calculus. She knew that her dad thought that she should study something like Geology since she had this reputation in her hometown for having uncanny ability to find precious metals, especially gold, where other people would swear that none existed. She really didn't, she just got lucky one time in California and found some in a riverbed. Not a lot, but enough to start the rumor that she could turn regular rocks into gold like those sixteenth century alchemists or something. It was absurd for this day and age, but the rumor persisted nonetheless.

She made sure that she turned the alarm off all the way, so as not to wake her roommate who was smart and didn't have a class until 10:30. She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. She had showered the night before so she simply did her morning routine of washing her face, brushing her teeth brushing her hair light brown hair, straightening it, and putting on basic make-up. She was fairly pleased with her appearance, even if she didn't really consider herself beautiful. She went out, got dressed, poured herself a bowl of Cornflakes, and sat down at her laptop to check her e-mail, something she did compulsively. After realizing that if she didn't leave soon she would be late for calc she grabbed her back pack and left. She walked at a fairly steady pace and was listening to her MP3, because she wasn't really in the mood to talk this early and was not paying attention at all, so she ran smack dab into a guy with black hair and green eyes walking the opposite direction. Papers flew everywhere, mostly his, since she had all her stuff in her bag.

"Sorry" he said.

"No, it was my fault, I wasn't paying attention." She said, helping him collect his papers. It was then she realized that he looked a little lost. "Are you looking for something?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually, I'm new here, and I have Calculus with" he looked like he was trying to figure out how to say the name. "Hasfura-Buenaga, whoever the hell that is."

She laughed. "That's where I'm headed as well. I'll take you over there."

"Thanks" he replied, "you are the first person I've met besides my roommate, so it'll be nice to know someone."

"Oh everyone warms up eventually, it's just REALLY early, they'll come around."

"By the way, my name is Charles Donnelly" he said, "but only my dad calls me Charles, my friends call me Charlie."

"Well it is nice to meet you Charlie, my name is Alexandrie Maguire, but everyone calls me Alex." She replied.

"Is your name French?" he asked.

"Yes, my mother's family is French. I was named after my Grandmother who came here years ago." She replied.

"That's cool" he replied, "Think my family is Irish, after all, my last name is Connelly."

"Cool" she said. "You said you were new, where did you transfer from?"

"The University of Illinois" He said. "I am totally digging this weather here in Texas. There's like a blizzard in Illinois, but it's like 70 degrees and sunny here."

"Well that's Texas for you" she replied. "I'm sure you'll like Trinity, even if it is quite a bit smaller than one of your big state universities."

"I'm sure I will" he said with a glance that, signaled that he was checking her out, not in a sleazy way, but in a respectful way. It nearly made her blush, but she didn't, just in case she was misreading the signals.

They got to class and sat through the teacher doing the inevitable first day routine of explaining the syllabus and class procedures. Just as everyone was finally about to fall asleep, the professor dismissed the class.

"That was boring" said Charlie

"Get used to it" Alex said, "It will be like that in every class today, but it will hopefully get better" she said crossing her fingers.

He laughed "I hope so, though I don't hold out much hope for Calculus, I'm a History major myself, I'm just taking it because I need a Math credit."

"Me too!" She replied, "We can fail together"

"Sounds like a plan" he said. "Well I have to run, I have American History next, oh, do you think that you could point out the building to me?" Alex told him how to find the classroom, having had that same class the semester before. They went their separate ways and each wishing they had more time together.


	2. I Should Tell You

Ch. 2:

_France, 1700's…._

Gabrielle heard a knock at the door. She went to the door and called "Who is it?" She had no idea who it could be since she wasn't expecting anyone. The only thing she could think of was that Mdm. D'Auvignon needed to borrow a cup of flour or something.

"It's Philippe." She heard from the other side of the door. She was rather flustered. It had been three weeks since she showed him to his house and she wasn't sure that he remembered her at all. She smoothed her hair and dress and hoped that she didn't look too bad after doing her chores that day. She opened the door and smiled at him. "Hello," he said. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever open the door." She blushed slightly and hoped that he didn't notice. "Stop it, she commanded herself silently. Don't fall all over him; you are a person, not a quivering heap of flesh."

She gathered herself and asked him in. After he was in she asked him "can I get you anything to drink, I think we have water and milk, maybe something else too."

"I'm fine, thank you. I was actually just taking a walk and thought I would stop by and see you. I feel horrible that I haven't been over here. The D'Auvignon's have been keeping me busy with meeting people and helping out at their house. Apparently my father told them that they should give me some responsibility, that it would be good for me." Philippe said.

"Well that's fine, I've been keeping busy as well. I have my own work to do." She replied.

"Really? What sort of work do you do?" He asked

"Well I take care of the house since my mom died, I cook for my father, and I spin, in fact some say that I'm one of the best spinners around." She replied.

"Oh, so you are the one that I've been hearing about. Some people have been telling me that I live near a girl who can spin anything, including straw, into gold."

"That is patently untrue!" Gabrielle exclaimed. "I wish people would stop saying that. Yes, I am very good at what I do, but I don't have supernatural powers!"

"I didn't think that you did," Philippe replied calmly. "And I certainly didn't mean to upset you. You might even take it as a compliment that people think you are so talented that you can do extraordinary things."

Gabrielle took a deep breath and apologized. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to fly off the handle. I'm sure that you think that I'm some sort of maniac who goes off with the least provocation. I really don't have a good excuse, I'm just really sorry that I yelled at you."

"That's alright," Philippe said. "It's rather refreshing, no one has yelled at me for a while. I think it's rather cute actually. It's nice to see a girl with some backbone." Gabrielle blushed again. She didn't quite know what to say. "Tell you what," Philippe said. "To show that there are no hard feelings, why don't you let me take you for a ride on my horse, we can go into the village and look around at the market."

"I'd like that," Gabrielle replied. "When do you want to go?"

"Why not right now?" Philippe said. They went outside and he helped her on the horse and they headed off in the direction of the village.

They rode along in silence for a while, enjoying each other's company and the scenery around the village. They heard birds chirping in the trees. They could feel the nice, cool breeze on their faces. It was a sort of idyllic silence that exists when two people are comfortable with each other, even when they don't quite know why.

They got to the village and started to wander around, just looking at all the things for sale. There were tables filled with fresh bread, fruits and cheeses. The woman that Gabrielle usually sold her yarn to was there. She stopped and introduced Philippe to the lady and discussed the next lot of yarn the woman was going to sell for her. She also showed him some of her yarn that the lady was selling for her that day and he bought a bit. To have a bit of her with him always, he said. A minstrel wandered by, singing a song about young love. By the time they had seen everything they were holding hands, really acting like two young people on the brink of love.

Things continued like this for the next several days. They took walks and he let her ride his horse around the farm. They just enjoyed each other's company. After about a week of this they were just sitting in the meadow near her house. They sat there in a comfortable silence, much like during their first horseback ride to town.

Gabrielle broke the silence first. "Why were you sent here?" She asked Philippe. "By the way you talk and by how much money you had you must be from the city or be educated, why would you want to come to this boring little town?"

"My Mother convinced my father to send me here. She thinks that I need to be more responsible, learn what it is like to live out in the real world. So they sent me to live with the D'Auvignon's for a while. They are old friends of my mother's." Philippe explained.

"So you are rich, you must be to talk about living in the 'real world'"! Gabrielle exclaimed.

"I didn't think that that would matter to you" Philippe said, sounding rather peeved and disappointed at the same time, "I thought you enjoyed my company anyway."

Gabrielle could see that she had made a mistake and apologized, "I'm sorry," She said. "It's just we've gotten so close these past few days and still I feel that you are keeping something from me. I just wish I knew what it was."

"Trust me," Philippe said. "You really do not want to know my secret. It will only complicate your life needlessly and I really want to keep what we have and not make things awkward between us."

"What could be so horrible?" She asked. "Did you kill someone? Are you wanted for robbery? Are you married? Or…" she said slowly, suddenly remembering something she had heard about at the market a few days before. "Are you the prince? But that can't be, the prince is name is Louis."

He sighed "You either have an impeccable memory or are a great guesser. My full name is Louis Philippe. I am the prince, the second son of the king. My brother is also named Louis, so my parents always called me Philippe." Gabrielle was shocked. She didn't think that she had guessed right. In fact, she was so shocked that she nearly fell over. "Whoa there, tell me what you are thinking." Philippe asked.

Gabrielle still didn't quite know what to think. She, after all, had just found out that the man she was falling in love with was a prince! "I… I don't know" She stammered. "I think I'm still in love with you, but how could you keep something like this from me. This seems like something I should have known."

"I know" he said, "but every other girl I've told this too has either turned into someone else after I told her, or run away completely. I was hoping that that wouldn't happen with you."

"It won't" She promised, suddenly recovering herself. "Or at least I'll try not to let it affect me, but what does it mean for us? Am I just some dalliance that you have on the side? Are you engaged to some princess from Germany or Britain?"

"Of course not, I would never do something like that to you." He replied "In fact, a condition that I made to my going out here was that I could choose my own bride. I love you Gabrielle. I would never do anything to hurt you."

Now she was doubly stunned. She knew that she was falling in love with him, but she didn't know that he was in love with her. A prince in love with her, it was too much like one of those fairy tales her mother read her when she was little to be true. All she could say was "I love you too."

_Texas, Modern Day_

Alex kept kicking herself that she didn't get Charlie's number after class that day. She couldn't even Facebook stalk him properly because his profile was private. So, she didn't see him until the next class, which, since Calc was a Tuesday-Thursday class, wasn't until the next Tuesday.

She got to the classroom a few minutes before class started got out her notebook and started doodling. She still had her headphones on from the walk to class so she nearly jumped out of her skin when Charlie came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey stranger," he said as he sat down in the seat next to hers. She pulled out her earbuds and recovered herself. "I haven't seen you for a while. I kept hoping I'd run into you, but no such luck."

"Well I guess we'll have to make a point of seeing each other then, since we seem to be incapable of meeting by chance." She teased him.

"Well then why don't you give me your number then and I'll call you and we can get together and do this homework for next time. This week's pretty much sucked, so maybe we can puzzle it out together." Charlie replied. She wrote down her number and gave it to him right as the professor walked into the room and started class.

After class Alex asked Charlie "so do you think you can find your way to your next class now?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I think I've got a better handle on things now, but thanks."

"Well I guess I'll see you later then." She said.

Alex wasn't too surprised when Charlie called her that night to see if she wanted to get together to work on Calculus. They arranged to meet in her room, since her roommate was hardly ever there. Once he got there they sat down and pulled out their books and started on integrating variables. Once they had puzzled through all the problems and were fairly certain that they had gotten at least half of them right she offered to make some coffee or tea which he accepted. They sat there talking about everything from school gossip to politics to history. They hit it off really well and stayed up talking until really late.

"Where are you from anyway?" Alex asked. "You transferred from Illinois, right? So are you from the Midwest?"

"No, I'm actually from Texas. Do you know where Allen is?"

"Yeah, it's north of Dallas, right? I have a friend that lives there. That's a nice town."

"Yeah, it is. Where are you from?" he asked her.

"I'm from a small town a few hours north of here, called Salado." She said.

"Oh, I've heard of that place. I don't think I know anyone who lives there though." He said.

"So what dorm are you in?" Alex asked.

"I'm in Wallis actually. It's right next to this one." Charlie answered.

"Cool. My friend Beth lives in Wallis, Wallis 3rd I believe." Alex said.

"I think she might live next door to me actually, I live on Wallis third too," replied Charlie.

"That's awesome, now I can check up on you." Alex said with a smile and a wink.

Charlie laughed "Well then I'll just have to be a good boy then. Oh, crap" he said, looking at her clock. "I'd better go. My roommate hates it when I stay out too late, plus I have class in the morning."

"Ok" Alex said, unwilling to admit to herself how sorry she was to have him leave, even though she'd only known him a little while.

"So I'll catch you later?" Charlie asked.

"Sure" Alex said.

As they walked towards the door Charlie turned and asked "What are you doing Friday night?"

Alex was caught a little off guard by this, though it was not at all unwelcome. "Nothing in particular, just hanging out with my friends or something, why do you ask?"

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me." Charlie asked. He gave her the puppy dog look.

"Well if you're going to pull the puppy dog look on me I guess I can't resist. What time are you going to come by?" She said.

"How does 7:00 sound? I figure we can get something to eat and then maybe catch a movie or something."

"That sounds great." She said, trying to sound nonchalant.

He left to go back to his room and she shut the door with a sigh of contentment.

_Friday…_

The rest of the week went really well. Alex and Charlie kept running into each other around campus. She introduced him to her friends and they seemed to like him. All in all the week went really fast and really well towards Friday night. That night he came by around 7:00 and picked her up. She was wearing her favorite pair of Old Navy jeans and a long-sleeved red shirt that complemented her fair complexion and blue-gray eyes. She was quite pleased with how she looked. He looked good too, wearing jeans and a button down shirt. He drove them to Salt Grass for dinner and then they went to go see a movie. He actually took her to see a chick flick which she thought was cool of him, since most guys would complain about going to see a chick flick. Afterwards they went and got ice cream at this place near the theater. All in all it went really well and they both had a good time. He walked her to her door and they hugged goodnight. She wanted to kiss him right then and there, but thought that it wasn't appropriate on the first date.

The next week they hung out almost every night. He ate dinner with her and her friends, they studied together, and got closer and closer. The fact that they would go out again was a foregone conclusion in everybody's minds, including their own. So, they went out again on the next Friday. This 

time they went dancing at a Country-Western club near the school. He was a really good dancer. He had a strong lead and was really good at teaching her the steps she didn't know. They stayed until 1:00 then they went to Starbucks since neither of them wanted to go back to the dorms yet. They finally got back about 2:30 and he walked her to her door. He stopped and she pulled out her keys and started fiddling with them in the age-old sign that women give when they want to be kissed. Alex said "I had a really nice time, Charlie. Good Ni…" She didn't get any farther before he grabbed her and kissed her. The kiss was deep and passionate and when it was over she was gasping for breath. She had never been kissed like that before. So, she kissed him again. And again. And again. She really wished he could stay longer and she was pretty sure he wished he could as well but he had to go to bed since he had to work on a project the next day.

They kept seeing each other and eventually decided that they were officially a couple. They even did the whole, big status change on Facebook thing. Before Alex knew it she was falling in love. Then it was spring break. "So what are you doing for spring break?" Charlie asked Alex one day while they were studying for their Calculus midterm.

"I'm not sure. I'll probably just go home. Why do you ask?" She replied.

"I was wondering if you would like to come home with me. You know, meet my family and stuff." He said.

Alex was a little startled by that but figured that they had been going out for the entire semester. "Sure," she replied. "I'll have to let my mom know, but that sounds like fun. I love going to the Dallas area."

"All right then I'll tell my mom to clean up the guest room." He said leaning in to kiss her. "By the way you probably ought to know that…" Then he stopped.

"What should I know?" She asked.

"Nothing, just you should know that I have a couple of sisters and they may drive you nuts." He said quickly.

She wasn't quite satisfied, but she let it go. "That's cool. I have sisters too."

They made out for a while and then, he whispered "I love you."

"I love you too."

**A/N: First off, Happy Easter to everyone. Second, this will probably be the last chapter for a while where where both story lines will be in the same chapter. It is not the last chapter in the story and I am sorry for any confusion. Also, Starbucks, Salt Grass and Facebook are all real. The names of the dorms, etc are not.**


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